US court to hear case against unjust arrests of Muslims after 9/11

NEW YORK: A lawsuit filed by Muslims against their unjustified arrests following the 9/11 incident has been accepted by a federal court in the United States nearly 14 years after the attack.

According to an article published on The Guardian, the lawsuit finally accepted for hearing from a federal appeals court last week, with two judges willing to hear what happened when the largest criminal investigation in the history of the United States tested the boundaries of civil liberties.

Three ex top US officials including former Senator John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller have been nominated in the lawsuit. They have been charged for “holding the defendants in solitary confinement 23 hours a day with regular strip searches because their perceived faith or race placed them in the group targeted for recruitment by Al-Qaeda violated the detainees’ constitutional rights”.

Robert Mueller (left) and John Ashcroft (right)

Rachel Meeropol, a Center for Constitutional Rights attorney working on the case said that the verdict has given hope about learning what happened at the top layers of US government at that time.

She also said that the case would have been resolved years ago if they had taken the local prison officials to court but her clients and other former detainees believed it was important to hold top US officials accountable as well.

Rachel Meeropol

“If they aren’t held accountable, there is nothing to stop them from doing it again,” Meeropol added.

According to the article, 762 people were arrested across the country.

The lawsuit filed in a federal court in April 2002 now has eight complainants which included six Muslims, a Hindu and a Buddhist and all of them belong to Middle East, North Africa or South Asia. Each was deported after being cleared of any connection to terrorism.